Silence turned into discussion and debate, and the students’ dependence on the teacher transformed into independence.
Increasing student engagement and independence in math is very important. Instead of relying on the teacher for answers, have the students discuss and explain their thinking with peers
Students were not only talking but excitedly debating.
This shows the overall impact of this engagement strategy. How often do we see or hear about students being excited in a math class?
groups of students had to agree on one answer and use the cups to color code how confident they were about their solution
I like the idea here; using self-assessment is very good, but in a larger classroom, it could be difficult for the teacher to see how all the students feel.
During the first step, called Try It, students independently worked on the problem for two minutes; after that, they explained and compared their solutions in the Talk It step.
This helps encourage both collaboration and individual thinking, this approach can help improve students mathematical understanding.
I also noticed that there seemed to be three types of learners in the class: students who got the solution quickly and sat back waiting for the next question, students who needed some support but generally sought out the teacher for next steps, and students who struggled
Many math classrooms have these same groups of learners. This strategy is helpful because group discussion allows stronger students to support others without hurting their own learning.